Primary Lung Tuberculosis

Excerpt

Discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, tuberculosis (TB), one of the oldest known infections, is a major global health problem and one of the top ten causes of death worldwide. It is a disease of humans, as it does not affect animals naturally.

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from an infectious agent worldwide, causing even more deaths in HIV/AIDS patients. A third of the world's population is said to have contracted the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, with estimates of ten million new infections globally each year. The global disease burden of tuberculosis is estimated to be around 24%, with remarkable socioeconomic implications.

The major pathology in tuberculosis is necrotizing granulomatous inflammation, with the lungs being the primary organs of involvement of the disease in up to 87% of the cases. Having that said, almost any bodily organ could be a site for the disease. It commonly affects people living in crowded conditions such as institutionalized patients, immigrants from countries with a high prevalence of tuberculosis, immunocompromised such as patients with HIV, and health care workers.

The worldwide incidence has been steadily decreasing, but it is still a common problem in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. It is still a major medical cause of mortality as the global death toll reaches up to 1.5 million deaths a year. Lung function impairment is the major sequel of pulmonary tuberculosis. In this topic, we will review pulmonary tuberculosis covering the main aspects of the disease.